Changes to the way threads are marked as read.
 

Hello,

We just changed the way the forum marks threads as read. Previously, it was cookies based and marked everything read after a period of inactivity.

We have switched to a more accurate way to show what you haven't and have read. Because of this, you may see more threads showing as "unread" (because you haven't read them)

Please report in this thread any odd behavior (or if it works better) regarding how threads now mark themselves as read.

This setting needs about 24 hours for it to fully work. Please check how things are working tomorrow. 6/28

Thanks,
Tyson

Thank you

Yes, thank you :)

I liked the old way. Threads I ignored because I wasn't interested eventually got marked unread. Now I have to spend more time sorting through the threads. Would have been nice if you would have done a poll before making such a big change.

You mean you find it hard double clicking the forum icon to mark all its thread read? This is what would have happened anyway after 10 minutes of inactivity.

Yes.

This is a big improvement. Thank You!

Well compare that inconvenience to this: Writing a message for more than 10 minutes or leaving the keyboard for more than 10 minutes and have all the still unread threads marked as read across all subforums. So now you have to figure out what time it was when that happens, and in each subforum you frequent, scroll down to find the post that was newer than that time and start from there. But that's not all, now when you want to look at new posts in a now shown as read thread that interest you, you have to go to the last page and scroll to see which posts you haven't read (go to first new post won't work here since the thread is show as read), which might be in a previous page so keep going until you find that post. That is very annoying.

And you can't do that on the mobile site.

Never liked the mobile site, it's missing too many features. I whished when I tell it to use the full desktop view that it keep that way and not constantly return to the mobile view...

Yeah, two ways, from the subforum menu:

http://i.imgur.com/MmGqf6f.png

or

http://i.imgur.com/InG8giK.png

http://www.bikeforums.net/data:image...AASUVORK5CYII=

I don't use the mobile site, so whatever it does is moot.

I am subscribed to some threads which I read only every so often. In the old system if I chose to ignore them they would quietly go away. If I wanted to catch up on their contents I could always read them later anyway. Now I have to intentionally mark them as read. The threads I always wanted to read I would always read anyway.

So the new system is a step in the wrong direction.

moot to you. I use mobile a lot as I am sure others do, which adds to this being a step in the wrong direction. It should be made a per user option, if possible.

When viewing the forum, double click the little bicycle icon on the left of the forum. That's all that is needed to mark all threads inside as read.

Don't you prefer being able to jump right away to the first unread message in a thread by just clicking on the little arrow icon before the thread's name? It's so convenient. This was lost when the forum used to mark all threads read by itself.

http://i.imgur.com/CVM1a0C.png

Plus you couldn't tell which forums had new posts in threads without having to figure out when was the last time you were here and compare that to the date of the threads. That was really annoying.
http://www.bikeforums.net/data:image...AASUVORK5CYII=

I liked the old way better.
But then, I'm like that about a lot of stuff...

This has two problems. The minor issue is that it requires clicking into the top level Forums page which I don't do very often. The big problem is that it would seem to mark the entire forum as read. That means all its threads. I would never do that without first looking to see which threads contained something interesting. The C&V form has many threads I am subscribed to and many more which I don't. Most of those I am subscribed to I do not want to mark as read, so some I am happy to let move on.

So the bicycle icon is pointless. Ha, until you mentioned it I never had a reason to hover over it to see what it did. (I know! Let's create a button somewhere, not mark what it does, and let people discover it by themselves. :foo:)

I'm confused, this is what the forum used to do, mark all threads as read after a period of inactivity. Now it doesn't. Only threads that has new posts since your last visit them will show in bold, and that's as long as you don't read them. Once the threads you are interested in them are read, mark the whole forum as read (you can use the forum tool "Mark this forum read" if you don't want to return to the forum view). That's what I do.

Ditto!!! I cannot find a way to mark all the threads as read so I don't have to keep track of when I last visited. Almost makes it impossible to efficiently go through "new posts" as well as my favorite forums.

To mark all threads as read, click on "Forum Tools" and select "mark this forum read"

Attachment 569759

To mark all forums read, click on "mark forums read" under quicklinks

Attachment 569760

If we're voting, I prefer the old way, too.

There are 3 forums that particularly interest me (general, mechanics, and road) and I visit them daily - so that is 3 clicks to mark threads read. But my interests vary (mountain biking, gravel, c&v, touring, etc) and I also request to see all new posts to check if there are any related threads that might interest me...so you expect me to go to each existing forum and click to mark all its threads as read?

I really don't get it guys. With the old way, when you leave the forum (or took too long to write a post), new posts that you did NOT read would AUTOMATICALLY be marked as READ without your doing! This means would MISS new posts unless you REMEMBERED when you LAST visited and MANUALLY looked through the read posts and find posts newer than that date! Then you would have to manually find that first new post in that thread. You find that convenient?!?

Now, it is IMPOSSIBLE to miss new posts unless you intentionally mark a forum as read! It's as simple as that! Remember, you only need to click on the down arrow before the thread's name to automatically jump to the first unread post in a thread. How can it be more simpler?!?

SG, are you by chance a system administrator?

Used to be. Why?

Old way here. I'm lost everyday now. Before I had everything to a T.

I didn't notice the change until someone said something about it...But I just keep a window open for C&V and for General (maybe one other sometimes) and I just open a new tab with the thread I want to read (by what page I want), then close it, go to the next, and so on. Ill reload the main pages a few times a day to see any new threads posted.

More simple to me, even if I do happen to miss threads here and there. Though, I can always go to the next page and skim through to check...and I use a desktop.

My vote - Well I suppose I don't use enough of the features to vote lol

Well, don't take this as an insult but your replies sound like one. Boiled down to the basic essence it goes like this:

"The new system is worse because <legitimate complaints>."

"No, it isn't. Now you can do <such and such>."

"But I don't want to do <such and such>. If I do <what I used to do> it takes fewer keystrokes and goes faster."

"But now you can do <such and such>. It's so much better."

"No, the new system is worse because <legitimate complaints>."

"But now you can do <such and such>."

Boiled down even further it goes:
"Doctor, this hurts."
"No, it doesn't."

In this case it is about marking unread threads as read. It no longer do so. But at least some of us users wanted it to. We liked it! Now to de-clutter the screen for the next time I log in I have mark them all manually. And having a right-click button is nearly valueless because I could do the same thing by just opening them individually anyway.

It is a step toward being less convenient. If it wasn't you wouldn't be reading this.

(I'm hoping the Sysops here will read this.)

With the new system you know which posts you have read or marked as read if you don't want to read them.

With the old system you never knew. If you spent too long reading or replying to a post, answered the phone, went for a cup of coffee etc. it would mark every thing as read. If read marks don't mean anything why have then to start with.

Let me explain this again but with a different spin.

When threads, or at least most of them, get old enough you, or at least I, just don't want to see them. Items in For Sale are likely not still available after a few days. Most conversations stop being active after a week or two, sometimes after a few days, and any post after that becomes a monologue, not a dialogue or polylogue. A user can see at a glance which threads are active because the titles of active threads show up in Bold.

In the previous system threads marked themselves as inactive, which is exactly what at least this user wants. With the new system everything unread still shows up in Bold so all the threads I really didn't care about before are screaming READ ME TOO! YOU FORGOT TO READ ME! Maybe I didn't read them the last time I logged in because I wasn't interested or didn't have time. If I didn't have time but do now, I can still open them, seeing at a glance they they are old. If I wasn't interested then I'm still not interested. But now I can make them go away and stop screaming only by marking them, which requires active moves.

This is the modern world, I guess. Everything screams for attention until you tell it to go away. And if another posting happens after you tell it to stop it will start screaming all over again until told to stop again.

Notice I mainly replied (in quotes) to individuals and not rambling to the same person. Some people reply to this thread without reading its content first. Just trying to educate about how it works now and to give it a chance. Something I guess is lost with some.

This is the only forum I visit that used to works like this. I gave its chance. Gave it several weeks before mentioning about the weird way this forum work here (see my other thread).

Another forum I visit almost daily that used the same software as this one is the Garmin forum. It worked just like this one works now. I used past tense because two days ago day switched software (without announcement or warning) so it's completely different (and all threads are now all shown as unread :p). Do I like it? It's too new for me to make a judgment on it. I was accustom to the old one but now I'll just need to accommodate to the new software. Btw, the marking of thread reads didn't change there. It's like here now.

Fair enough but for one thing. I don't really care about which messages are unread. I care about which ones are new. The usage pattern is this: I don't have time to read everything. But I make it a point to read all the stuff I'm interested in every time I log in, and ignore the rest. The next time I log in I would like to see highlighted whatever is new, not what I didn't read the previous time. The Sysops' assumption is erroneous that highlighting what is unread is the right thing to do.

Not meaning to insult Sysops everywhere I still say this is a common occurrence. Someone comes up with what is perceived to be a better idea and then implements it. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. When the affected users complain the frequent response is to state what the implementer thought would be good and never actually hear what the user says isn't so good.

We recently had another change that someone apparently thought was good but really isn't. The Your Notifications list has started telling me about my own posts as something someone quoted. Why is that? I don't need to be told about them, I've seen them already! But sometimes I do like to be told about a real quote. (Of course I would normally see that highlighted as a new unread item in that thread anyway. Or at least I would if it wasn't obscured now by so much fluff from unread threads I'm not not interested in.)

There is more than one BHTC (Big High-Tech Company) that does this all the time. One can postulate reasons why, such as lack of corporate or marketing backbone to admit a mistake, too much individual pride, insufficient understanding of users' actual usage patterns, etc. Some companies are quick to make adjustments, to their credit. But the first response is almost always to deny the complainers' complaints as just lack of adaptability. When that happens they are missing the point.

So in this case it is that "they" made seeing which ones are unread easier. The real point is that I (at least) don't care about that, I care about something else.